by Zoe Chant
She stepped back, her face white. Mathis stepped with her, his chest going tight at her obvious distress. He slid his arms around her waist. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s—oh, hell. I told my roommate Thandie that I’d see her after my shift last night, but she wasn’t in our room when I got changed and grabbed my—stuff—and… oh, shit. I’m such an asshole.”
Running her fingers through her hair, Chloe pulled away from Mathis’ embrace.
“I’m sorry, I’ve got to go. I have to find her—she was so upset—I can’t believe I forgot.”
She thumped the heel of her hand into her forehead, grimacing. Mathis grabbed her hand and kissed it while she groaned.
“You were distracted. Blame me. I’m very distracting.” Mathis kept his tone light. Chloe just groaned again and, because her hand was unavailable, thumped her forehead against his chest.
“I don’t know. She was super freaked out by all the predators in the viewing room. All the VIPs.”
Mathis captured her head with his other hand and held it against his chest. Chloe grumbled, but didn’t pull away.
“I’d better go,” she said again, sounding more reluctant. “I don’t know if Thandie is working this morning, but I really want to check on her.” She sighed and tipped her head up, resting her chin on Mathis’ chest and looking up at him. “So. Walk of shame together, or solo?”
“I guess that depends on how fast you want to get fired.”
Chloe squeezed her eyes shut. “Damn it. I want to talk to Thandie before we get chucked off the island. Can I sneak off now, and you follow in a few minutes?”
“Only if I get to come find you later.” Mathis dipped his head to rest his forehead against Chloe’s.
“Deal.”
Mathis watched her make her way slowly back up the bluff. She was somehow even more attractive in her rumpled t-shirt and sweatpants than she had been in her fancy dress the night before. And he was sure she would have been able to move more quickly if she hadn’t kept shooting glances back over her shoulder at him.
Even with her constant obviously-intentional micropauses, Chloe disappeared over the ridge too soon. Mathis’ lion grumbled and huffed, treading in dissatisfied circles inside him.
Patience, grasshopper. He chuckled. His heart was lighter than it had been in years. You heard her—she just wants to check on her friend. Like any of us would do for our pride. You’ve waited for her this long—what’s a few more hours against your entire future?
He stretched, reveling in the feel of the morning sun against his bare skin. His mate! And all he’d had to do to find her was…
…Pretend to be someone he wasn’t, join a questionably-legal fighting ring on a private island owned by a man even his sister wouldn’t do business with, and convince a beautiful woman to quit her job over a one-night stand.
Doubt started to gnaw at his insides. Meeting Chloe like this, with no plans, no expectations—it felt perfect. Nothing like the torturous matchmakers’ dinners that Mathis knew Grayson’s nephew Leon suffered through as the young alpha of his pride.
But once he got past how amazing he felt, and tried to look at the situation from the outside…
Shit. Is it really that bad?
Mathis shook himself. There was no point worrying. He had a plan, now he just needed to stick with it. And, God, did it feel good. Suddenly the future wasn’t just night after night of chasing adrenaline in the ring. It was bright, and beautiful, and had a smile like the sunrise.
He picked up his shirt, which he and Chloe had slept on, and raised it to his face. He could still smell her on it, her delicate, womanly scent. It sent warmth flooding through his body… and to one spot in particular.
Mathis stretched again, flexing his leg muscles until his body calmed down.
Pulling his shirt back on wasn’t nearly as good as having Chloe’s arms around him again, but until he caught up with her, it would have to do. He inhaled deeply, then, judging he’d given her enough time, headed up the slope.
Her scent was still on the wind when he crested the rise, but there was no sign of her. She must have put on a turn of speed as soon as she was out of sight. Mathis didn’t blame her—he was itching with anticipation, ready to get moving and get off the island.
He forced himself to walk, not sprint, over the manicured grounds back to the residential area. He was poking his way through the gardens when he caught sight of Julian.
The shifter—Mathis frowned as he realized he still didn’t know what sort of shifter Julian was, then shrugged it away—was lying back on a bench, soaking in the sun.
“Slacking off?” Mathis was in a good mood; he couldn’t help poking fun. Julian had seemed so tightly-wound the day before, and he still was—except he was also lying on his back on a stone bench, for all the world looking like a man sleeping off a night of hard partying.
Julian jerked as Mathis called out to him, and then slid smoothly into a sitting position.
“Ah. Mr.… Dell,” he said, blinking slowly. His bottle-green eyes took in Mathis’ sand-mussed hair and wrinkled clothes. Something that might have been a smirk lurked at the edge of his mouth. “Did you enjoy your first night under our benefactor’s hospitality?”
“First and last night.” Mathis ran his fingers through his hair, scattering sand over his shoulders. “I’m out.”
“You…” Julian got to his feet. His eyes widened. “You can’t be serious.”
Mathis laughed. “Come on, man, what are you on about? Harper’s great, but there’s more to life than whaling on some other poor bastard while he and his friends gulp down champagne. Maybe I didn’t realize that yesterday, but I do now.”
“What’s changed?” Julian was standing perfectly still.
Mathis’ lion twitched its nose. That sort of stillness was unnatural. It was deliberate, wary—but was it the wariness of prey, or the watchfulness of a predator?
“I met someone,” he said, narrowing his eyes as he waited for Julian’s reaction.
To his surprise, the expression that passed like lightning over Julian’s face looked something like fear.
“I see. Do you intend to tell Mr. Harper that you’re leaving, or will you disappear like a thief in the night?” Julian asked, tight-lipped.
“In the night? Hell, that’s a whole day away—I’m not waiting that long.” Mathis flashed a wide grin. “Even if I have to swim.”
The corner of Julian’s mouth twitched downwards, so fast it had to be unintentional. All traces of any hidden smile were gone now. “I hope you will reconsider. Mr. Harper isn’t—”
“Isn’t what?” Harper’s voice cut through the morning air like lightning.
The hairs on the back of Mathis’ neck went up. How did I not notice him coming over? He checked in with his lion, who was as surprised as he was. Neither of them had sensed anything—not smelled or heard Harper approach, or sensed him through the shifter’s animal sixth sense.
Harper gave a friendly smile as he walked over. “Not bothering the guests, are you, Rouse?” he called across to Julian.
“Not at all.” Julian’s face smoothed over. “If you’ll both excuse me, I need to attend to my duties.”
“Good man.” Harper’s eyes sparkled as he watched Julian head back to the house. “Now, Matt,” he said, turning his pale eyes on Mathis. “What was that I overheard about you leaving us so soon?”
Mathis ruffled his hair. “Ah… something like that, yeah,” he muttered. Except it wasn’t him, was it? It was good old down-to-earth, down-on-his-luck Matt Dell.
Was now a good time to reveal his true identity? Probably not, Matt decided. Don’t want to drop that on the poor guy’s head at the same time I tell him I’m skipping out on the rest of the season.
Harper narrowed his eyes mockingly. “‘Something like that’?” he echoed. “Come on, Matt, out with it! Why am I losing my best fighter after just one night?”
Mathis gave in. He explained about Chloe—but not that
Matt Dell was really Mathis Delacourt, heir to one of the most powerful prides in the continental United States.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity you’ve offered me, Harper, but Chloe? She’s my mate. I might have gone my whole life without meeting her, but now that I have, I have to do right by her.” Mathis’ heart squeezed as he said the last bit. He laughed it off, adding, “And part of that is not getting my pretty face messed up, right?”
“You make a good point.” Harper clapped him on the back. “Well, tell you what. You head back to your quarters now and get your stuff in order, and we’ll get this sorted out by lunchtime.”
Mathis grinned, relieved. After Julian’s reaction, he’d expected push-back to his decision to leave, but Harper seemed to be taking it in his stride. “Great. Thanks, boss.”
“Thank me later.” Harper returned Mathis’ grin, his teeth catching the morning sun.
CHAPTER 8
CHLOE
Chloe kept finding new places sand had gotten wedged into as she hurried back to the staff quarters. Most of them she could brush off without too much trouble, but some of them were going to require a shower.
She had a quick sniff of one armpit as she came into sight of the main house and ducked behind a hedge. Strike that. I’m going to need a shower even without the sand invasion.
The sun was halfway up the sky by the time Chloe slunk into the staff quarters. Her hand automatically went to her pants pocket to check her phone, but it was out of power.
Dammit. Must have forgotten to put it on airplane mode. Which means it’s been sucking up battery power searching for signal all night…
There was a clock in the kitchen. Ten fifteen. Time for a shower—and time to apologize to Thandie.
Chloe rolled her shoulders back and felt them click. A month of cleaning duties had made her back and arm muscles as tight as coiled springs. A shower would get her clean, but what she really needed was a long, hot soak to ease out all the knots.
She thought of her bathroom back home with a longing she wouldn’t have thought possible a month ago. The tub in her apartment might be cramped, and have decades’ worth of waterlines around the edges, but at least you could fill it with hot water and sit in it.
Chloe stretched her back and heard another crackling click. Okay, ouch. I’m going to spend the next week in that shitty tub, I swear.
She crept past the tightly shut doors of a few of her colleagues who she knew worked the night shift, and up the stairs to the room she shared with Thandie. She hadn’t seen anyone yet, and more importantly, no one had seen her—or smelled her. All she needed to do now was grab a change of clothes and sneak back to the bathroom…
“Chloe!”
Chloe’s spine slammed painfully into the doorframe as Thandie tackled her.
“Ow,” she groaned. “Thandie, what—”
“Are you okay?” Thandie didn’t seem to know whether she wanted to hug Chloe, or look her over. She grabbed Chloe’s upper arms in a vice-like grip. “Oh God, Chloe, when you disappeared I thought—”
“You thought what?” Chloe started to shake Thandie off, but thought the better of it. Thandie’s lower lip was trembling, and she had dark circles under her eyes. “Thandie, what’s wrong?”
Thandie pulled her into a hug that made Chloe’s back click. “I thought you were dead,” she wailed.
“What?” Shock buzzed at the base of Chloe’s skull. Back down the corridor, she heard a door bang. Moving on autopilot, she kicked the door closed, wrapped her arms around Thandie and half-guided, half-dragged her to the closest bed.
Thandie was sniffling as Chloe sat her down. Chloe slung one arm around her shaking shoulders.
“Can you tell me what’s going on?” she asked gently.
Thandie drew in a ragged breath and wiped her eyes. “I thought—when you took over the drinks service for me last night, with all the apex shifters, and then you didn’t come back to the room…”
Chloe winced. She’d felt guilty for forgetting about Thandie the night before, but she hadn’t realized how much of a panic her midnight disappearance would put her friend into.
“You worried one of them had, what—hurt me?”
“Or eaten you,” Thandie said hollowly. “When they sensed that I was just a hummingbird, they kept making all these jokes. But they were jokes that didn’t feel like jokes, you know? And the way some of them were looking at me…” She sniffed and rubbed her nose. “God, I feel so stupid, now, but I was really freaked out. I mean, I knew we had a lot of shifters on staff, but I didn’t know the big boss and his friends were like us, too.”
“Shit. I’m so sorry, I didn’t even think...” Chloe stopped, tongue-tied, as the events of the night before appeared to her in a new light. Thandie’s frantic refusal to work the VIP lounge. The way that one guy had literally sniffed her.
Oh, shit. They must all think I’m a shifter, too.
“I’m sorry I didn’t come back last night. After I watched the fight, I needed some air, you know? But I should have come back and checked on you.” Chloe hugged Thandie awkwardly. “Sorry for being such a crappy friend.”
Thandie gave a final-sounding sniff. “And I’m sorry for freaking out on you just now. I feel like such an idiot. I talked with Nora after I came back here and, you know, it’s not just most of us who are shifters. It’s all of us. The whole crew!” She sighed. “So, what are you, anyway? I can’t figure it out, so you must be something with great camouflage skills, right? A chameleon or something?”
I wish. Chloe flicked her hair back over one shoulder. “What am I? I’m getting the hell off this island, is what I am. And you should, too.”
“Well, I’m probably going to get fired, so…” Thandie’s eyebrows knitted together. “Wait, how are you going to get off the island?”
“Um…” Chloe weighed up her options. Should she tell Thandie the truth about what she’d been doing last night, or gloss over the details?
She took in Thandie’s expression. Her brown skin was still paler than Chloe had even seen it, and there were tensions lines at the corners of her mouth and eyes. Chloe made up her mind.
Time for her Jedi mind trick to do some good.
“I uhh… might have broken certain fraternization rules last night…” Chloe caught the glint of curiosity in Thandie’s eyes, and privately pumped her fist. “Speaking of which, I really need a shower.”
Chloe stood up and started rifling through her drawers for a fresh change of clothes, deliberately not meeting Thandie’s interested gaze.
“Hang on…” Thandie’s voice was suspicious. “Do you mean you met someone, or you—” Chloe could almost hear the inverted commas, “—‘met’ someone?”
“Um… the second?” Chloe grabbed a towel. “Save your questions for after I’m clean, okay?”
She made it to the door and turned back to see Thandie close on her heels. Chloe raised her eyebrows.
“You know, I’m really okay with going to shower by myself.”
“Uh-uh. No way. I stayed up all night terrified you’d been eaten by a lion shifter or something, and now you’re telling me you were with some guy? You owe me.” Thandie jabbed her in the ribs.
Chloe groaned dramatically, and trudged down the hall to the bathrooms. “Ugh, fine. Well, he is a lion shifter, so you’re right about that. As for him eating me…”
***
Chloe’s spirits lifted as she teased Thandie out of her fears with salacious details about her night-time adventures—then sank again as the day went on with no news from Mathis. By the time her afternoon shift came around, she had to admit to herself that he’d probably forgotten about her.
If he’d ever meant what he said at all.
Chloe’s stomach clenched as she thought about how stupid she had been. Had she really believed that Mathis would give up a sweet gig like this just to get to know her better? As if. It was far more likely that he’d seen the opportunity to jump into her pants, taken it, and then
come up with a convincing story to make her leave in the morning.
She snorted. Stay in your room until I come and find you? What a great strategy for giving him time to GTFO before she figured out what his game was.
A soft snore from Thandie’s bed echoed her snort. Chloe finished pinning her hair back and stared at Thandie’s sleeping form in the mirror. She sighed.
Not only were her own plans to leave the island shattered, but now she would have to admit to Thandie that she’d been fooled, too, and that neither of them were leaving. She had suggested to Thandie that she take the chance to get off the island while she and Mathis were being given the book, but so much for that idea.
Her shift started in ten minutes. Chloe checked herself in the mirror one last time, pulled some apology-chocolate from her bag and put in on Thandie’s bedside table for when she woke up, and headed for the door.
Someone knocked on the other side of it.
Chloe’s heart thudded in her ears. He wasn’t lying. He really is here.
She pulled the door open, heart leaping—and saw Julian Rouse standing on the other side, his hand still raised to knock again.
Chloe felt numb. “Oh—Julian, hi,” she mumbled. “I was just heading over to start my shift…” Which will probably include cleaning Mathis’ room. God, how humiliating.
Julian looked over her shoulder. His eyes narrowed as he took in the sleeping Thandie, and then snapped back to Chloe.
“I’ll walk you over,” he said, his voice clipped.
“All right, but I’m on guest room duties—”
“There’s been a change of plans.” Julian ushered her into the hall. “You’ll be—” His eyes flicked back towards Chloe and Thandie’s room. “—taking Thandie’s shift again. She’s been permanently moved off the service roster.”
Julian’s jaw set with an almost audible click. Chloe tried to keep her confusion off her face. Everything he was saying was perfectly ordinary—so why did he look so tense?
It’s probably a shifter thing, she reasoned. I wonder what he is?
She stole sidelong glances at Julian as they walked. Whatever sixth sense it was that Thandie and the others had for figuring out what sort of animal people shifted into, Chloe definitely didn’t have it. Julian was tall and slender, and moved gracefully—but to Chloe, he looked one hundred percent human, from his glossy black hair and green eyes to the nervous twitch in his fingers.